Numbers Book!

Materials...

If you have access to a computer:

Computer, printer, Microsoft Power Point

If you don't have access to a computer:

Construction paper, scissors, crayons, markers, glue, a variety of art materials.

Directions...

If you have access to a computer, open up Microsoft Power Point and make a book and a slide show at the same time! Tell your child that you will make a book of numbers together! You can decide on the title. We wrote 'numbers, numbers, numbers!'

On each page write the numbers in order 1 to 10. Then ask your child "what should we put on page 1. We need one thing." We used a happy face for the number 1. Try to get your child to use an adjective (words that describe the picture, for example: happy, colorful, big, round, etc.) for each picture. You can use shapes or clip art for each page. Let the child direct you and choose what they want in their book.

Here is what we used:

1 Happy Face

2 Blue Moons

3 Colorful Squares

4 Pink Balloons

5 Leprechaun hats

6 Rainy Day Umbrellas

7 Crunchy Apples

8 Jumping Frogs

9 Sharp Scissors

10 Dancing Hippos!

If you don't have access to a computer you can make your book by hand. If you want to save on paper you can cut each construction paper in half and number then from 1 to 10. If not you can use the whole sheet. Next to each number your child can choose to draw, color, or cut and glue items. For example she can draw 1 happy face, cut out 2 moons, glue on 3 stickers, cut and glue 4 triangles.. and don't forget to have them describe what they choose. For example, 3 colorful stickers, 4 purple triangles, 5 swimming fish.

When you are done you can staple the pages together and read your book!! When reading your book encourage your child to touch each item on the picture as they count the objects.

Making Patterns with forks n spoons!

Materials...

Forks and spoons of different sizes

Directions...

Tell your child that together you will make patterns using forks and spoons! Ask them if they can think of a pattern they can make. You can model it if they don't know how to do this yet. You can say "I'm going to make a pattern with the spoons and forks. Here's a spoon and then a fork, another spoon and another fork." Once you made your pattern together say it out loud. "Spoon, fork, spoon, fork, spoon, fork, what do you think comes next?"

If you want to expand on this pattern that you just made, on a sheet of paper label the spoons A and the forks B. Tell your child that we are giving the spoon the name of the letter A and the fork the name of the letter B. How can we read this pattern now. "AB, AB, AB, AB, what letter do you think comes next?"

"Can we make other combinations of patterns using the forks and spoons?" Above you can see pictures of some of the patterns we made. We used the ABB, ABB pattern and ABCC, ABCC pattern!

Have fun making patterns!

Making a Dollar with Quarters!

Materials...

4 Quarters

1 dollar bill

paper and pen

Directions...

Show your child the dollar bill and ask him/her how much it is? If they don't know you can show the number 1 and tell them that it's a one dollar bill.

Next show the quarters. Ask them if they remember what the name of this coin is? And how much it's worth.

On a sheet of paper write down that quarters are 25 cents and that a 100 cents are equal to 1 dollar. Then tell your child 'we are going to make a dollar with quarters! Can you guess how many quarters we need to make a dollar? I don't know.. let's find out together!'

We get to count by 25's because a quarter is 25 cents! (Counting by 25's can be difficult for younger children. I will explain how we did this in the following paragraph.) Place a quarter on the paper and put the number 25 on top of it. Next place the second quarter and put the number 25 on top of that one. Draw the plus sign in between and ask your child what's 25 cents+ 25 cents. It's 50 cents, is that a dollar? why or why not? We need a 100 cents to make a dollar and we only have 50. What do we need to do? add another quarter. Now let's count 25, 50, 75 do we have enough? Keep going until you reach a 100.

To add 25+25 ask your child what can we find in the number 25 (breaking the number down.)

If your child doesn't know how to break down the number yet, you can use a counting manipulative for example cheerios, buttons, crayons, etc. Count 25 cheerios and put them on the table. After you counted 1by1 ask how many cheerios do we have? That's right 25. Can you give me 10? Count together and take 10 out. Then you can ask "so in this number 25, is there a 10?Yes! Do you think there's another 10? Let's count and see." Count and take out another ten. "Do you think there's another ten? Let's count and see.. Oh we have a 5! So the number 25 has a 10+another 10 + a 5!"

Under the addition problem 25 + 25 write in paraphrases (10+10+5) + (10+10+5) now you can add by tens and 5's and write your answer =50. Repeat this procedure each time you need to add another quarter. Break down the number, write it down underneath in parentheses and count by 10's and 5's until you reach 100 cents!

When you reach a 100 cents go back and count by 25's one more time together to check your work. Then you can ask how many quarters did we use to make one dollar? Let's count and see. 4 quarters make one dollar! If you still have the sheet with the pennies, nickels and dimes from the other day's exercise you can compare 5 different ways to make a dollar. (the dollar bill, 100 pennies, 20 nickels, 10 dimes and the 4 quarters!) Emphasize that all 5 ways are equal. You can use our earlier example and say something like, "If you went to the store and wanted to buy a candy bar for 1 dollar, which one can you give the 100 pennies, 20 nickels, 10 dimes, 4 quarters or the 1 dollar bill? You can give any one of the choices because they are all equal! Which one do you think would be their 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th choice and why? First choice would be the dollar bill, then the quarters, then the times, then the nickels and last the pennies!"

Go over this concept a couple of times on different days until your child completely understands that quarters are 25 cents and that 4 quarters are equal to a one dollar bill.

Have fun!

Making a Dollar with Dimes!

Materials...

10 Dimes

1 dollar bill

paper and pen

Directions...

Show your child the dollar bill and ask him/her how much it is? If they don't know you can show the number 1 and tell them that it's a one dollar bill.

Next show the dimes. Ask them if they remember what the name of this coin is? And how much it's worth.

On a sheet of paper write down that dimes are 10 cents and that a 100 cents are equal to 1 dollar. Then tell your child 'we are going to make a dollar with dimes! Can you guess how many dimes we need to make a dollar? I don't know.. let's find out together!'

We get to count by 10's because a dime is 10 cents! Place a dime on the paper and put the number 10 on top of it. Next place the second dime and put the number 10 on top of that one. Draw the plus sign in between and ask your child what's 10 cents+10 cents. It's 20 cents, is that a dollar? why or why not? We need a 100 cents to make a dollar and we only have 20. What do we need to do? add another dime. Now let's count 10, 20, 30 do we have enough? Keep going until you reach a 100.

When you reach a 100 cents go back and count by 10's one more time together to check your work. Then you can ask how many dimes did we use to make one dollar? Let's count and see. 10 dimes make one dollar! If you still have the sheet with the pennies and nickels from the other day's exercise you can compare the 4 different ways to make a dollar. (the dollar bill, 100 pennies, the 20 nickels, and the 10 dimes!) Emphasize that all four ways are equal. You can use our earlier example and say something like, "If you went to the store and wanted to buy a candy bar for 1 dollar, which one can you give the 100 pennies, 20 nickels, 10 dimes or the 1 dollar bill? You can give any one of the choices because they are all equal! Which one do you think would be their 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th choice. and why? First choice would be the dollar bill, then the dimes, then the nickels and last the pennies!"

Go over this concept a couple of times on different days until your child completely understands that dimes are 10 cents and that 10 dimes are equal to a one dollar bill.

Have fun!

Making a Dollar with Nickels!

Materials...

20 Nickels

1 dollar bill

paper and pen

Directions...

Show your child the dollar bill and ask him/her how much it is? If they don't know you can show the number 1 and tell them that it's a one dollar bill.

Next show the nickels. Ask them if they remember what the name of this coin is? And how much it's worth.

On a sheet of paper write down that nickels are 5 cents and that a 100 cents are equal to 1 dollar. Then tell your child 'we are going to make a dollar with nickels! Can you guess how many nickels we need to make a dollar? I don't know.. let's find out together!'

We get to count by 5's because a nickel is 5 cents! Place a nickel on the paper and put the number 5 on top of it. Next place the second nickel and put the number 5 on top of that one. Draw the plus sign in between and ask your child what's 5+5. It's 10 is that a dollar? why or why not? We need a 100 cents to make a dollar and we only have 10. What do we need to do? add another nickel. Now let's count 5, 10, 15 do we have enough? Keep going until you reach a 100.

When you reach a 100 cents go back and count by 5's one more time together to check your work. Then you can ask how many nickels did we use to make one dollar? Let's count and see. 20 nickels make one dollar! If you still have the sheet with the pennies from the other day's exercise you can compare the 3 different ways to make a dollar. (the dollar bill, 100 pennies, and the 20 nickels.) Emphasize that all three ways are equal. You can use our earlier example and say something like, "If you went to the store and wanted to buy a candy bar for 1 dollar, which one can you give the 100 pennies, 20 nickels or the 1 dollar bill? You can give any one of the choices because they are all equal! Which one do you think would be their 1st, 2nd and 3rd choice. and why? First choice would be the dollar bill, then the nickels and last the pennies!"

Go over this concept a couple of times on different days until your child completely understands that 20 nickels is equal to a one dollar bill.

Have fun!

Making a Dollar with Pennies!

Materials...

100 pennies

1 dollar bill

paper and pen

Directions...

Show your child the dollar bill and ask him/her how much it is? If they don't know you can show the number 1 and tell them that it's a one dollar bill.

Next show the pennies. Ask them if they remember what the name of this coin is? And how much it's worth.

On a sheet of paper write down that pennies are 1 cents and that a 100 pennies are equal to 1 dollar. Then tell your child 'we are going to make a dollar with pennies! Can you guess how many pennies we need to make a dollar?'

Start counting and lining up the pennies up to ten. Once you get to 10 start a new row of pennies. After you have two rows, write 10 on top of each row and put a plus sign in between and tell your child let's count how many pennies we have. "What's 10 + 10? 20. Now we have 20 cents does that make a dollar? why or why not? what should we do then? add more cents until we reach a 100." Every now and then stop and ask again "do we have enough?"

After each row of pennies write the number 10 on top and add by tens from the beginning. After you have 100 pennies emphasise that all of those pennies are equal to the 1 dollar bill.

You can say something like, "If you went to the store and wanted to buy a candy bar for 1 dollar, which one can you give the 100 pennies or the 1 dollar bill? You can give either one because they are equal! Which one do you think they would like you to give? and why? that's right, they wouldn't be too happy counting 100 pennies!!"

Go over this concept a couple of times on different days until your child completely understands the concept that 100 pennies make a dollar.

Enjoy!

Learning about Money...

Materials...

Pennies, Nickels, Dimes and Quarters.. empty out your change container!

4 paper plates or containers

Directions...

Sort all the money into the different containers. Keep using the names of the coins over and over. For example, 'I want to collect all the dimes. Can you help me find the dimes? Where is another dime."

This is a simple activity but a very important one! Not only are they learning about money but they are learning about sorting and classifying which is a math concept!

If you click on the link below you can go to one of my favorite websites and play a game to practice sorting and classifying.

http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/frames_asid_270_g_2_t_3.html

Enjoy!